Brazil flood and landslide death toll reaches 806

REUTERS, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

The death toll from floods and landslides that devastated a mountainous region near Rio de Janeiro has reached 806, state authorities said on Sunday, as rescue teams scoured the mud for the hundreds still missing.

More than 20,000 people have also been forced from where they live or made homeless in the area, according to the statement posted on the state government’s Web site.

The disaster now ranks as the second-worst recorded in Brazil’s history, according to UN data published in the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper on Saturday, eclipsed only by a meningitis outbreak that killed 1,500 people in 1974.

TORRENTIAL RAIN

Entire hillsides collapsed last week in the Serrana region, about 97km north of Rio, after the equivalent of a month’s rain fell in 24 hours.

Avalanches of mud and water ripped through mainly poor communities, tossing cars atop -buildings and burying some families alive.

At least 207 people were recorded missing last week, suggesting the final death toll could be close to 1,000.

Local officials estimated at least 300 were missing.

DISEASE FEARS

Fears are now growing about disease. Brazilian Minister of Health Alexandre Padilha visited the worst-affected town of Nova Friburgo on Saturday and state health authorities have warned against coming into contact with contaminated river water.

Landslides and flash floods are common in much of Brazil at this time of year, but the scale of the disaster has prompted renewed concerns that authorities failed to plan or take action to prevent the disaster.

The government vowed last week to set up a national early warning system that could alert communities to approaching natural dangers.